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Wednesday, 17 June 2015

Index Zero

'Some humans just aren't sustainable anymore.'

It's 2035, drought and conflict have reduced much of the world to chaos and desert. Eva is expecting a child with her husband Kurt and they want to give it the best possible future, by finding a way into the United States of Europe. They manage to tunnel their way into the USE but are apprehended by police and taken to a 'Welcome Centre' where they are separated. Eva is kept locked up soon to be deported because her pregnancy renders her unsustainable. Kurt meanwhile is taken to an internment camp where the potentially sustainable are kept until they reach the sustainable 'Index Zero'. From here he tries to work his way round the system to be reunited with Eva.

Most of the action takes place in the claustrophobic environment of the internment camp and the prison, the muted palatte of colours adding to the sombre mood of the piece.

There are few particularly new ideas here but we're given an all too believable vision of a dystopian future, with a convincing mix of current preoccupations around immigration and the future of the European Union and details such as newsreels showing angry demonstrations against the Sustainability Index and Eva using spilled oil as nail polish.

It's very telling too, that for all the talk of sustainability, it seems obvious that in this version of the future, it's been left too late, at least in terms of anything resembling a natural world, where living things other than humans and the occasional crow might be able to exist.

It's an effectively made and tense film though the ending seemed oddly abrupt.